Thursday, March 12, 2015

Eating Disorders: The Method behind the Madness

When faced with stress, especially in college, many students
develop different coping mechanisms, both good and bad. While some people
release steam by going to the gym, hanging with friends, and napping, others
develop unhealthy habits such as binge drinking and eating disorders in the
attempt to fight off the stress in their lives. Because of the noticeably
strong correlation specifically between stress and eating disorders such as
anorexia and bulimia, researchers have begun to look for physiological and
psychological explanations as to why people, girls in particular, turn to
harmful eating-related behaviors to counteract stressful situations.

The main physiological systems in charge of responding to
stress are the sympathetic nervous system and the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal
axis (Het et al., 2014). The sympathetic nervous system releases epinephrine
and norepinephrine from the adrenal medulla for a short-term adaptation to a
stressful environment. The hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis then releases corticotropin-releasing
hormones, adrenocorticotropic hormones, and cortisol to maintain homeostasis (Het
et al., 2014). At resting conditions, people with either anorexia or bulimia display
a decrease in sympathetic nervous system activity and an increase in
hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis activity compared to healthy individuals.
This could indicate a predisposing condition causing the development of an
eating disorder because their stress response systems are primarily abnormal (Het
et al., 2014). Researchers were able to determine this by measuring the
concentration of cortisol in their saliva.Cortisol also displays a type of circadian rhythm with its cortisol
awakening response, which was used to indicate hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal
axis activity as well (Het et al., 2014).

While these results have been very helpful in figuring out
the difference in stress system activity for those suffering from eating
disorders, there has been a lot of contradicting evidence about the difference
in their stress systems’ responses. This has been due to small sample sizes and
ineffective stress induction methods (Het et al., 2014). That is why Het et al.
sought to compare the physiological and psychological responses to stress of
people with and without eating disorders using a larger sample size and the
Trier Social Stress Test as an appropriate stress inducing method (Het et al.,
2014). They used a sample size of 26 female inpatients suffering from either
anorexia or bulimia. They decided to clump the two eating disorders together
because they believed that both eating disorders shared the same core
psychopathology even though they differed in the means for controlling eating
patterns (Het et al., 2014). This could have skewed their data because there is
no way to know if there is a physiological process that makes the distinction
between the two disorders.

In order to test the patients’ response to stress, Het et
al. had to find a way to administer the stress in the first place. As
previously stated, they chose to do so by using the Trier Social Stress Test.
It combined tests such as convincing others to hire them for a ‘dream job’ and
counting backwards from 2043 in steps of 17 as fast as they can, acts that
would make anybody break out in a nervous sweat (Het et al., 2014). Het et al.
would then take saliva samples before and after the stress test and measure the
difference in cortisol and sympathetic nervous system levels. These samples
showed that compared to the healthy controls, participants with eating
disorders showed a decrease in cortisol levels (hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal
axis activity) after the stress test (Het et al., 2014). In order to test stress’s
effect on sympathetic nervous system activity, each participant’s heart rate
variability was taken. Low-frequency heart rate variability indicated both
parasympathetic and sympathetic activity. Results showed that there was no
difference between groups of participants in sympathetic activity after the
stress test (Het et al., 2014). For their last procedure, Het et al. tested the
participants’ psychological response to stress by administering a Positive and Negative Affect Schedule.
Results showed that both groups showed an increase in negative affect after the
stress test, but eating disorder participants displayed a higher negative
affect to begin with (Het et al., 2014). This could mean that their unhealthy
response to stress could be due to their already blunted psychological
processes.

After gathering their results, Het et al. sought to explain
why people with eating disorders tend to have lower
hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis activity in response to stress. One
explanation they came up with was that it was due to the fact that their
participants were inpatients that were recently introduced to a proper eating
regiment. By eliminating fasting as a constant trigger for a stress response,
the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis activity would drop (Het et al., 2014).
This shows that ones’ body will change in response to ones’ coping mechanisms
in order to respond to them as if they were the stress signal to begin with. Although
their findings were different than expected, they indicated that there is a
connection between eating disorders, our bodies, and our minds. They should
continue their work by individually testing patients with anorexia and patients
with bulimia to see if there is a difference in physiological processes between
the two. Even so, they found that anorexia and bulimia are not necessarily a
conscious decision made by women trying to look thinner, but rather a disorder
that some people may be physiologically prone to developing in order to manage
stress.

6 comments:

So when looking at the results of this study, the difference in reactions of the patients (measured in cortisol concentration) the researchers simply found that the patients with anorexia or bulimia maintained a similarly low level compared to healthy patients. This as you said would indicate more of a predisposition to one of these disorders. However, they also noted that the patients who were tested were recently admitted and just broken their fasts, potentially causing the lowering of their hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis activity and the difference between those patients and the controls.I think it would be interesting to do a longitudinal study of a group at risk of developing an eating disorder (young women and girls most likely) to see if a reduction in that axis activity makes it more likely for a person to develop an eating disorder. This might clear up the confusion as to where the difference in cortisol secretion might be coming from.

The prevalence of eating disorders in people our age is startling.I would be hard pressed to identify a student on campus who had never been acquainted with someone who had one of these disorders. I think the problem arises from unrealistic body images (for both men and women) created in the media. Although seldom talked about, magazines and TV create unrealistic images for males in the same way females experience this. Unfortunately for women everywhere, the editing done in magazines and models tends towards unhealthy levels of skinniness, whereas men are subject to unrealistically muscular (but also skinny) depictions of men. Advertisers are trying to create mini idols in their editing of images that makes our definition of beauty unattainable for both sexes. There have been proposals recently to create legislature that would require magazines and advertisements to have their images ranked (by an independent ranking system) on a scale of 1-5, 1 being unaltered and five being heavily photoshopped. Although this might help boys and girls understand how unrealistic these images are, it may not help redefine beauty and allow women to believe that being bone-thin is not the only way to maintain beauty.

There were many points within this article about eating disorders that I had not considered. I do agree with the suggestion of looking more into the differences in anorexia and bulimia in regards to changes in physiology in order to better treat and monitor eating disorders. Also, the fact that eating disorders stem from already damaged psychological processes, we could potentially be able to track and possibly prevent eating disorders in many patients, thus improving the health and self-image of many individuals.

I'm glad research is being done into the psychology of eating disorders. It seems many individuals in the public believe eating disorders aren't some sort of serious mental illness, but rather a phase or a not serious issue. Seeing people struggle with the disorder and it's debilitating effects on positive image and self-confidence is something a lot of people today struggle with. Finding more about these illness and the science behind them can help us look for better treatment.

I've always thought that eating disorders are psychologically driven. I didn't realize that they are actually physiological processes. It is very interesting to see how stress can cause a physiological mechanism that leads to an eating disorder in order to cope with the stress. Most people deal with stress on a regular basis, so I'd be interested to know what kinds of factors predispose people (women, particularly) to developing eating disorders in response to stress.

Great post! It is true that most eating disorders come from having psychological issues but it was interesting to learn what exactly was happening inside as a consequence and the fact that they could measure a difference between those affected and a control group. It gives hope to the idea that they may come up with some kind of drug to reduce or reverse the amount of stress they are feeling. I also believe that when we consider this study we must consider what is considered stress for all these individuals, some may find somethings more stressful then others, some may be a combination of stress and something else causing them to start an eating disorder. Like being in shock after someone passes away or a big traumatic life even, a lot of people become to depressed to eat their system just rejects the food.